Publications

Information for G01274

Has biodiversity ‘all but disappeared from the global dialogue on sustainable development’ as Sanderson & Redford fear? Here we explore the poverty reduction imperative that dominates the current agendas of most international development agencies, question the absence of biodiversity conservation from this agenda, and debate the role of the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals in building bridges between the two. Sanderson & Redford are not wholly correct in lamenting the loss of biodiversity from the sustainable development agenda. Indeed, biodiversity was one of five priority issues singled out for attention at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. What has happened, however, is that the pace of the sustainable
development dialogue has not been fast enough for developing country governments and for international development agencies, and a parallel agenda has emerged in recent years to address an internationally recognized imperative of poverty reduction. This is articulated internationally in the set of eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and nationally in the World Bank-driven process to develop national poverty reduction strategies in low income countries.